Here's part of the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve map that shows my hilltopping location. I parked in the Vista Point parking lot shown in the upper left corner of the map, and then hiked to the hilltop from there.

This was my second hilltopping excursion to Borel Hill. I strapped my telescoping antenna mast to the sign post that marks the summit of Borel Hill. Someone stole the "Borel Hill" sign since my previous visit.

The beam on top of the mast is my trusty 4 element Arrow II Back Pack Portable 2m antenna. With this antenna and my Yeasu FT-817 running 2.5 watts on 144.200 USB, I received a "20 over" signal report from K6XN operating in the mountains northeast of Nevada City.

K6XN was also looking for a 432 contact for Field Day, so I attached my Arrow II Satellite Antenna (minus the 2m elements) to the mast below the 2m beam. This time my signal was only S3 into K6XN's location, but another Field Day contact nonetheless.

Here's my setup for 6m. That's the stock whip that comes with the Yaesu FT-817 with the 6m extension. I was able to contact K6XN on 6m as well with this setup.

A little while later, there was a 6m opening to Idaho and Montana. Although I can't quite count it as a QSO, I got an acknowlegement of my callsign from KI6CG/7 who was operating from Whitefish, Montana, which is in the NW corner of the state. He wasn't able to hear much more than my callsign, but that's not bad for 2.5 watts and a rubber duck antenna. I'm starting to think about a semi-portable 6m beam I can take along on hilltopping excursions.

Here's another shot of all three antennas, the FT-817, and the sign post the mast was strapped to.

That's me (N6TOP) doing a little FM simplex work with my Motorola Saber HT before packing up and heading down the hill.

Here's the view looking west toward the Pacific Ocean. As you can see it was pretty foggy that day.